Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

At the time of the pillaging of the monasteries — the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church and redistribution of its wealth by King Henry VIII, it is said that a aristocratic gentleman by the name of Sir Anthony Browne, the 1st Viscount Montague, was holding a banquet in the Abbey Hall.   I have discovered that a cowled figure of a monk strode up to his dining table and solemnly damned him with the punishing utterance —

"By fire and water thy line shall come to an end, thus shall it perish over the land".

The Browne family were of influence and in their time entertained both King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I as their honoured guests.  I have found that Sir Anthony Browne's family were to have connections with mystery and intrigue in future years (a young Guy Fawkes was also in the employ of the family as their footman... just imagine that!).    Following the Browne family's trail, it led their successors to residing at Muntham Court in Findon.

It was during John Cheale's tenure as the Lord of the Manor of Findon, that the grand gentleman with the name of Anthony Browne, the 6th Viscount Montague, moved to the Findon area and bought the Muntham Estate from a certain John Middleton.  He proceeded to have a compltely new house designed at Muntham by Joseph Merlott in 1743. The intention was to use the estate as a hunting box for the Charlton Hunt from Goodwood.

When completed, his red brick Georgian mansion at Muntham, enhanced by carefully laid out great plantations and fishponds, was more than just a mere hunting lodge. Little is known about the actual house and gardens at this time, except for the Viscount laying out the plantations. The property on all accounts provided an extremely attractive gentleman's country retreat, if rather secluded, being one-mile north-west of the village. It was protected by the Downs and woodland from the bane of the plague-bearing west wind — dreaded by all at that era. The grandly laid out grounds and surrounding farmlands were extensive and in 1754 the new owner even —

I imagine that this refers to the sinking of the Muntham well.    Gilbert White thought it worth noting in 1773 that there was indeed a well at the house and it was 350 ft. deep.   The power source may have been by horse or by donkey-engine (as utilised elsewhere on the Downs).    The water must have been laboriously drawn up by buckets, unless pumps were installed.

As the water table was more than 200 feet below the surface in most places in Findon, the supply of water must have been a serious problem to all the eighteenth century owners; hence the number of large trial holes excavated in the vicinity of Muntham Court. These were noted and commented on by the Bishop, Dr. Richard Pococke (1704-65) on one of the travels in 1754 when passing through Findon. The water was almost certainly laboriously raised by buckets. The source of power may have been a horse or a donkey engine until pumps were installed.

The Browne family moving to their "hunting box" in the Findon district were to be the subject of much tragedy in the near future, believed to have resulted from the almost forgotten old monk's curse during in the reign of King Henry VIII.

Sir Anthony and his wife stayed at Muntham for twenty-two happy years until 1761, and during this time it appears that there were no retributions or untoward violently happenings to blight their tenure in Findon.   

It was in 1793 that the curse came calling on the Brownes, two centuries after the monk's wrath. There was a massive blaze at their mansion at Cowdray.  The watchman calling "fire in the North Gallery" awakened the skeleton staff on duty on Thursday 24th September 1793 in the dead of night. The property blazed like a tinder-box and it is reputed to have smouldered on for a whole fortnight afterwards.

Supposition was rife and resurrected the words of the ecclesiastical man and brought the curse to the forefront once more. At the same time as Cowdray was destroyed by fire, its then owner, the 8th Viscount, was tragically drowned while attempting to shoot the cataracts in a rowing boat at Laufenburg on the Rhine. He died before he knew about the loss of his house back in England.

Later, in 1815, the two sons of the Viscount's only sister were drowned when their boat capsized off the nearby shore at Bognor. The monk's words seemed to be ringing true at last. By fire and water!

Continue if you would like to read William Frankland Arrives in Findon.

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This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.